The weekly South African Singles chart history

Category Archives: 1974

Well we’ve now reached the end of 1974, the 9th full year of charts and the 10th year overall in which we had charts produced as they stared halfway through 1965. So who did what with what and for how long and how many times and all that stuff. Read on…

We saw the second lowest number of hits for a full year in 1974 with 115 songs spending time in the charts. This was 12 more than 1973, the lowest to date for a full year. The 79 for 1965 (half a year of charts) was the overall lowest. 1969 still held the record for the most hits as we saw 153 that year. There were exactly 100 artists who spent time in the charts this year if one splits out duets into their component parts, however, if we count a duet as a single act, then this figure would be 98. This did give us the lowest hits per artist ratio of 1.15, beating the 1.18 of 1971 and 1973. The table below sets out the figures for these stats by years:

Year

No Of Hits

No Of acts

Hits/Act

1965

79

55

1.44

1966

136

97

1.40

1967

146

98

1.49

1968

142

97

1.46

1969

153

112

1.37

1970

141

114

1.24

1971

135

114

1.18

1972

117

97

1.20

1973

103

87

1.18

1974

115

100

1.15

Local acts accounted for 35 of the 115 songs of 1974, this was their 3rd highest total for any year. 1971’s 41 was the record to date followed by the 38 we saw in 1973. It took 27 acts to bring us these hits.

TOP HITS

Based on a points system of 20 points for a number 1 position, 19 for number 2 etc down to 1 for position 20, the following are the top 40 chart performers for the year (Note: this does not reflect sales):

Pos

Song

Artist

Points

1

Solitaire

Andy Williams

298

2

The Peacemaker

Albert Hammond

287

=3

Loving Arms

Dobie Gray

282

=3

Rock Your Baby

George McCrae

282

5

Why Me

Kris Kristofferson

273

6

Seasons in the Sun

Terry Jacks

260

7

If You Love Me (Let Me Know)

Olivia Newton-John

258

8

The Night Chicago Died

Paper Lace

247

9

The Air That I Breathe

Hollies

226

10

Waterloo

Abba

223

11

Photograph

Ringo Starr

210

12

If You Need Me

After All

209

13

Love’s Theme

Love Unlimited

205

14

Touch too Much

Arrows

204

15

Hello Girl

Dr. Marigold’s

201

=16

Ring, Ring

Abba

189

=16

Little Jimmy

Gwynneth Ashley-Robin

189

18

Kung Fu Fighting

Carl Douglas

184

19

Let Me Roll It

Wings

182

20

Sundown

Gordon Lightfoot

178

21

Sorrow

David Bowie

175

22

Rock Me Gently

Andy Kim

167

23

Band on the Run

Wings

163

24

The Wonder of Your Love

Jody Wayne

158

25

There Won’t be Anymore

Charlie Rich

156

26

Sugar Baby Love

Rubettes

151

27

When Will I See You Again

Three Degrees

145

28

Charly

Sean Rennie

144

29

The Entertainer

Marvin Hamlisch

144

30

Kissin’ in the Back Row of the Movies

Drifters

143

31

Dark Lady

Cher

142

32

Jolene

Dolly Parton

136

33

Emma

Hot Chocolate

135

34

Ma! (He’s Making Eyes at Me)

Lena Zavaroni

130

35

Tchip Tchip

Dan Hill

129

36

Haai Casanova

Glenys Lynne

128

37

I Need a Little Love

Lionel Petersen

126

=38

Angie

Rolling Stones

125

=38

Rock the Boat

Hues Corporation

125

=38

Hasta Mañana

ABBA

125

You can compare this to the list published in Top 40 magazine in 1989 which can be found here:

Andy William’s ‘Solitaire’ was the 3rd song by an American act to be the song of the year using this points basis. The previous 2 were Roger Williams’ ‘Lara’s Theme (From Dr Zhivago)’ in 1966 and Sandy Posey’s ‘Single Girl’ in 1967. Local acts still led the way for Song of The Year as they had managed 4. Germany had seen 2 while the Brits had only managed 1 so far. ‘Solitaire’ accumulated 298 points, the 6th highest any song had seen in a calendar year. The 417 Alan Garrity’s ‘I Need Someone’ managed in 1972 was still the best we had seen.

The cumulative points to date gave the following top 10:

Pos

Song

Artist

Points

1

I Need Someone

Alan Garrity

464

2

I Can See Clearly Now

Johnny Nash

448

3

Cry to Me

Staccatos

447

4

You

Peter Maffay

399

5

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday

Jessica Jones

391

5

We Believe in Tomorrow

Freddy Breck

376

7

Woman (Beautiful Woman)

Don Gibson

373

=8

Sylvia’s Mother

Dr. Hook

363

=8

Beautiful Sunday

Daniel Boone

363

10

Nice to be with You

Gallery

359

The top songs pointswise on the local front for 1974 were as follows:

Pos

Song

Artist

Points

1

Little Jimmy

Gwynneth Ashley-Robin

189

2

The Wonder of Your Love

Jody Wayne

158

3

Charly

Sean Rennie

144

4

Tchip Tchip

Dan Hill

129

5

Haai Casanova

Glenys Lynne

128

The previous year had seen the first local female artist top this list as Barbara Ray took the honours with ‘I Don’t Wanna Play House’. This year we saw the second woman to manage it in the form of Gwynneth Ashley-Robin’s ‘Little Jimmy’.

Cumulatively from the start of the charts in 1965, the top 5 local songs were:

Pos

Song

Artist

Points

1

I Need Someone

Alan Garrity

464

2

Cry to Me

Staccatos

447

3

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday

Jessica Jones

391

4

Mammy Blue

Charisma

347

5

I Don’t Wanna Play House

Barbara Ray

336

NUMBER OF HITS

For a second year running 3 hits was the most that any act saw spend time in the charts and 4 acts managed this. They were Lionel Petersen, Billy Forrest, Abba and Wings. 17 acts saw 2 hits chart in 1974. So far the highest number of hits any acts had seen spend time in the charts in a year was 5 which we had seen on 6 occasions. These were Engelbert Humperdinck and The Bee Gees in 1968, The Archies, Percy Sledge and The Bee Gees (again) in 1969, Neil Diamond in 1971 and Middle Of The Road in 1972.

The alert among you will have noted that Lionel Petersen and Billy Forrest were the top local acts, both seeing 3 hits in the top 20 in the year. Tommy Oliver, Jody Wayne, Barbara Ray, Angelika Illman, Alan Garrity, Peter Vee, Gwynneth Ashley-Robin, Glenys Lynne and Dan Hill all managed 2. Four Jacks & A Jill and Dave Mills held the record to date for local acts, each managing 4 in 1968 and 1971 respectively.

Neither of the top 2 acts for cumulative total hits to date saw chart action in 1974, but they both still sat first and second with Tom Jones leading the way on 17 and Cliff Richard in second place on 15. The Hollies, who were in 3rd place last year, did manage to see 1 hit chart in 1974 and they were now only 1 behind Cliff Richard with their total being 14.

Billy Forrest was the top local act for number of hits. His 11 put him tied 6th on the overall list, a position he shared with 5 other acts. He had added 2 to his total in 1974. Jody Wayne added 1 to his total and was second with 9 while Four Jacks & A Jill were in 3rd place on 8.

WEEKS ON THE CHARTS

Abba became the first act from a nation other than the UK, the US or SA who would see the most weeks in the chart in a calendar year. They managed 38. Only 1967 had seen less from the top acts for a year when 3 acts topped the list with 37. Middle Of The Road’s 59 in 1972 was still the best we had seen so far. Wings on 37 was second highest for 1974 and Albert Hammond on 30 was 3rd.

Tom Jones was still way out in front for total cumulative weeks. His 184 put him 48 ahead of second placed The Hollies who moved past The Bee Gees with 136 to their name while the latter were on 125 and had not seen any chart action in 1974.

The Staccatos were still the top local act for weeks with 83 to their name. Billy Forrest had moved into second place with 81 while Alan Garrity was 3rd with 79. Four Jacks & A Jill dropped from 2nd to 4th. They were on 78.

NUMBER 1’s

For a 3rd year running we had no acts see more than 1 number 1 hit. We had also seen this in 1966, making 1974 the 4th time overall where no act had more than 1 chart topper. There were a total of 15 songs that spent time at number 1 during the year which was 2 better than 1973’s effort of 13 which was the lowest total we had seen to date. The 21 chart toppers we saw in 1969 was the most we had seen so far.

Kris Kristofferson’s ‘Why Me’ spent more weeks at 1 than any other song in 1974. It was at the top spot for 8 weeks. Albert Hammond’s ‘The Peacemaker’ and Carl Douglas’ ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ were tied second with six weeks although it should be mentioned that the latter was at number 1 for the last week of the year and had the potential to increase its overall total for weeks at 1 in 1975.

There was only 1 local chart topper and that was Gwynneth Ashley-Robin’s ‘Little Jimmy’ which managed just 1 week at the top spot. This was the 3rd year where we had only seen 1 local chart topper, the other 2 being 1965 and 1969 but this was the first time we had only seen a local chart topper for 1 week in the year as in 1965 and 1969 those single local chart toppers spent 6 and 3 weeks at 1 respectively.

Overall, the 6 chart toppers Tom Jones had managed was still the best anyone had seen to date. The

Hollies picked up another one this year (‘The Air That I Breathe’) to give them outright second place with 5, moving 1 ahead of Chris Andrews on 4 and who dropped into 3rd place. The only other act of the 15 chart toppers this year who had seen a number 1 prior to 1974 was Olivia Newton-John who now had 2 to her name.

Tom also led the way for total weeks at 1, his 18 was still unchanged since he had last been at number 1 in June 1970. The Bee Gees and The Sweet also did not add to their total during 1974, but remained in tied second place with 14 weeks each. In terms of weeks at 1 by a song, we had already seen the all time record of 13 which Johnny Nash’s ‘I Can See Clearly Now’ had managed and the second highest of 12 weeks which Charisma’s ‘Mammy Blue’ managed.

LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE GIRLS

1974 was the 2nd best year for woman in terms of the number of hits they had. As solo artists they saw 19 songs spend time in the charts and they had a further 7 more where they were part of a duet bringing the total to 26. The best we had seen to date was 23 in 1967 (27 including duets). The 19 songs were brought to us courtesy of 16 different acts while the 26 including duets brought that total up to 19.

There were 7 woman who saw 2 hits this year which was the best any managed. The 7 in question were Angelika Illman (both as part of a duet with Billy Forrest), Barbara Ray, Diana Ross, Dolly Parton, Glenys Lynne, Gwynneth Ashley-Robin and Olivia Newton-John. 4 of those 7 were local (Illman, Ray, Lynne & Ashley-Robin). Petula Clark’s 4 hits in 1967 was still the record to date for a woman.

The top 2 women for cumulative number of hits to date was unchanged from 1973 and they were Petula Clark at 1 with 11 hits and Nancy Sinatra at 2 with 7. Virginia Lee was unmoved in 3rd place with 6, but she was joined by Barbara Ray who moved alongside her as her total climbed to 6. The top 2 local woman, Lee and Ray, who coincidentally both had what are usually regarded as men’s names as their surnames, were followed by Judy Page on 4 while Glenys Lynne joined Maria, Jessica Jones and Lauren Copley on 3.

Gwynneth Ashley-Robin spent more weeks in the charts than any other woman in 1974 as she managed 23. Olivia Newton-John was second with 22 while Dolly Parton came 3rd with 19. This was the 4th year in a row that a local woman had been the top weeks scorer for female artists. Maria’s 40 in 1973 was the best a woman had ever managed in a single year.

On a cumulative basis Petula Clark still led the way for weeks in the charts by a woman with 73 to her name and this was unchanged from the end of the previous year. She had had a 7 week lead over second placed Barbara Ray at the end of 1973, but this was slashed to just 2 as Ray added 5 weeks to her total in 1974 and sat second on 71. Vicky Leandros on 62 was in 3rd place. The top 3 local women were Barbara Ray (71 ), Lauren Copley (54) and Maria (49).

There were only 2 songs by woman that topped the charts this year and they were Olivia Newton-John’s ‘If You Love Me (Let Me Know)’ (3 weeks) and Gwynneth Ashley-Robin’s ‘Little Jimmy’ (1 week).

Olivia Newton-John was the first woman to manage 2 solo chart toppers (her previous one being ‘If Not For You’). Nancy Sinatra had been seen at the top of our charts with 2 different hits, but one of them had been her duet with her father, Frank.

Hilary’s 8 weeks at 1 was still the most a song by a woman had managed with Barbara Ray having 6 to her name and Sandy Posey and Nancy Sinatra were in 3rd place with 5.

The top 5 hits by woman in 1974 based on the points system were:

Pos

Song

Artist

Points

1

If You Love Me (Let Me Know)

Olivia Newton-John

258

2

Little Jimmy

Gwynneth Ashley-Robin

189

3

Dark Lady

Cher

142

4

Jolene

Dolly Parton

136

5

Ma! (He’s Making Eyes at Me)

Lena Zavaroni

130

On a cumulative basis, the top 5 read:

Pos

Song

Artist

Points

1

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday

Jessica Jones

391

2

I Don’t Wanna Play House

Barbara Ray

336

3

Come What May (aka Aprés Toi)

Vicky Leandros

321

4

It’s too Late Now

Lauren Copley

303

5

Clap Your Hands and Stamp Your Feet

Maria

302

NATIONALITIES

Aside from artists from the UK and US (who tend to dominate most charts worldwide), and local acts the following are the top hits from other nationalities:

Pos

Song

Artist

Points

Nationality

1

Seasons in the Sun

Terry Jacks

260

Canada

2

Waterloo

Abba

223

Sweden

3

If You Need Me

After All

209

Netherlands

4

Ring, Ring

Abba

189

Sweden

5

Sundown

Gordon Lightfoot

178

Canada

With Terry Jacks having the top hit for the rest of the world acts, Canada joined Australia and Germany in now having had 2 top hits in this category. The previous Canadian to top this list was Lucille Starr whose ‘The French Song’ was the best by a non SA, US or UK act back in 1967. Australia’s 2 times topping this list were both with songs by the same act (The Seekers) while Germany had been the first nation to have 2 with 2 different acts (Peter Maffay and Freddy Breck).

There were 16 songs from acts not from SA, the UK or the US which spent time in the charts this year. This equalled the second highest we had seen to date which happened in 1971. The year that held the record so far was 1970 when we had 19 ‘rest of the world’ hits on our charts. For the first 4 years of the charts (i.e. 1965 – 1968) at least 1 act from the rest of the world had seen 3 hits spend time in the charts. We had not seen this again until this year when Abba managed 3 (‘Waterloo’, ‘Hasta Mañana’ and ‘Ring, Ring’). After All had 2 ‘If You Need Me’ and ‘Help Me My Love’) while all the rest only had 1 each. The top of the overall hits count list for non-big 3 acts was unchanged from the end of 1972 with The Seekers from Australia on 7, Canada’s Lucille Starr second with 5 while Michael Holm sat 3rd on 4 but was joined by Vicky Leandros who added 1 to her total this year.

For a second year running the local acts had more hits on the charts than any other nation as they saw 35 songs spend time in the top 20. The Americans were second with 33 while the Brits managed 31. For a 4th time Canada was the top of the rest of the world nations for number of hits as they scored 5. One of their previous 3 times they shared the top spot with the Aussies who had managed to top the list 3 times. Sweden and The Netherlands were second for 1974 with both nations seeing 4 hits in the charts. In total, acts from 9 different nations charted with the 3 aforementioned nations being joined by the usual suspects (SA, UK and US) while Greece, Germany and Italy each saw 1.

Having acts from 9 different nations chart during the year was the first time this number had not been in double figures since 1969.

The Americans held on to the lead for total number of hits throughout the whole of 1974 at worst they were just 1 ahead of the Brits and their biggest lead was when they were 11 hits ahead of the Brits on 19 April and again on 10 May. The year ended with the Americans tally on 382 and they were 6 ahead of the UK acts who were on 376. Locals sat on 236 with Canada on 23, Germany on 15 and Australia on 12 being the next 4 on the list. This was the same order of the top 6 nations as we had seen at the ned of 1973, it was just the hit count for all except Australia that changed.

The cumulative best hits for ‘rest of the world’ artists was as follows:

Pos

Song

Artist

Points

Nationality

1

You

Peter Maffay

399

Germany

2

We Believe in Tomorrow

Freddy Breck

376

Germany

3

Come What May (aka Aprés Toi)

Vicky Leandros

321

Greece

4

Butterfly

Danyel Gerard

276

France

5

The Love in Your Eyes

Vicky Leandros

275

Greece

WHAT DIDN’T CHART

1974 saw the highest number of UK and/or US number 1s not make our top 20 as there were 32 songs that topped the charts in either the UK or the US or both that didn’t make our charts. However, if one excludes 3 of those 32 which would chart in SA at a later date, then this was 1 less than the 30 (using the same criteria) we saw in 1973.

The 32 chart toppers in the US or UK or both that didn’t make our charts in 1974 were as follows:

Always Yours

Gary Glitter

Angie Babe

Helen Reddy

Bennie & The Jets

Elton John

Billy Don’t Be A Hero

Bo Donaldson & The Heywoods

Billy, Don’t Be A Hero

Paper Lace

Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love, Babe

Barry White

Cat’s In The Cradle

Harry Chapin

Devil Gate Drive

Suzi Quatro

Everything I Own

Ken Boothe

Feel Like Makin’ Love

Roberta Flack

Gonna Make You A Star

David Essex

I Can Help*

Billy Swan

Jealous Mind

Alvin Stardust

Lonely This Christmas

Mud

Love Me For A Reason

Osmonds

Merry Xmas Everybody

Slade

Nothing From Nothing

Billy Preston

Sad Sweet Dreamer*

Sweet Sensation

She

Charles Aznavour

Show And Tell

Al Wilson

Sunshine On My Shoulder

John Denver

The Joker

Steve Miller Band

The Loco-Motion

Grand Funk Railroad

The Streak

Ray Stevens

The Way We Were

Barbra Streisand

Then Came You

Dionne Warwick & The Spinners

Tiger Feet

Mud

Time In A Bottle

Jim Croce

You Haven’t Done Nothin’

Stevie Wonder

You Won’t Find Another Fool Like Me

New Seekers

You’re (Having My Baby)

Paul Anka

You’re The First, The Last, My Everything*

Barry White

I WRITE THE SONGS

It took 149 song writers to bring us the songs that saw chart action in 1974 which was the second lowest we had ever seen with only the half year of charts of 1965 seeing less (104). The most we had seen was 206 in 1967. Jody Wayne took top honours for number of compositions seeing chart action as he had 4 make the charts this year and these were his 2 hits, ‘The Wonder Of Your Love’ and ‘Heartbeat’ along with 2 Gwynneth Ashley-Robin hits, ‘Little Jimmy’ and ‘Little Soldier Blue’. Mike Hazelwood, Albert Hammond, Nicky Chinn, Mike Chapman, Stig Anderson, Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Paul McCartney all managed to see 3 of their compositions chart. These all fell way short of the record to date 9 hits in a year that Terry Dempsey managed in 1971.

Dempsey did see a song in the charts this year (David Cassidy’s ‘Daydreamer’) but that had started its chart run in 1973 so he had not added to his total of 24 hits to date, but he still led the way overall for hits by a song writer. Les Reed was also unchanged in second place with 18 while Jeff Barry was still in 3rd place, but he had moved on from 16 at the end of 1973 to 17 at the end of 1974.

Song writing duo Albert Hammond and Mike Hazelwood saw their compositions spend more time in the charts than any other song writer in 1974. Their hits totalled 44 weeks in the top 20. Jody Wayne was second with 40 weeks with the Abba song writing team of Stig Anderson, Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus sharing 3rd place with Paul McCartney on 37 weeks. The top score of 44 weeks was the lowest top score we had seen for a full year so far with only the half year of 1965 showing less where Guglielmo Brezza and Nini Rosso managed 29 weeks.

Overall Terry Dempsey led the way for weeks count for a song writer as his hits had clocked up a massive 253 (69 more than Tom Jones, the leading weeks count for an artist). Les Reed on 168 was second while Barry Gibb on 151 was 3rd.

Apart from having the top weeks count for song writers, Albert Hammond and Mike Hazelwood were also the only song writers to see more than 1 chart topper as they gave us Hammond’s hit, ‘The Peacemaker’ as well as The Hollies’ ‘The Air That I Breathe’. The combined total of 8 weeks that those 2 songs spent at number 1 equalled the total for Kris Kristofferson’s self-penned ‘Why My’ putting Kristofferson equal top for weeks at 1 by a song writer. Barry and Maurice Gibb still led the way for the total weeks at 1 by a song writer as the 2 brothers had managed a total of 15. Their other brother, Robin, was still tied second with Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman who had 14. In terms of number of number 1’s Chris Andrews, Barry Gibb, Maurice Gibb, Robin Gibb, Les Reed and Geoff Stephens had all seen 4 of their compositions hit the number 1 spot so far and this was the record to date.

THANKS

Finally, I would like to thank all those who have helped along the way through through 1973. Special thanks go to Peet van Staaden, Anton ‘Eagle-Eye’ van Staden and Ian McLean for supplying invaluable information and corrections as well as Chris Kimberly, Brian Currin, Stephen Segerman and Tertius Louw for being my go-to guys when I’m stumped.

We ended the year with Carl Douglas’ ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ still at number 1. It had been there for 6 weeks. Abba’s ‘Hasta Mañana’ spent a second week at number 2 while Neil Diamond’s ‘Longfellow Serenade’ moved into 3rd place.

It took just a 3 place climb to get the climber of the week award and 3 songs managed this. Gigliola Cinquetti’s ‘To The Doors Of The Sun’ was up to 6, ‘Mama Tembu’s Wedding’ by Margaret Singana was up to 9 and Eric Clapton’s ‘I Shot The Sheriff’ was up to 12. This was the 2nd time we had seen 2 woman take the biggest climber in a week. The previous time we had seen this was when hits by Dolly Parton and Maria were the climbers in the same week. As the biggest climber was 3 places, there were no star raters this week. Eric Clapton and Margaret Singana’s hits both had previously been fallers of the week. They were not the 19th and 20th songs to be a biggest climber after having been a biggest faller. This was the first of only 2 occasion that we would see 2 songs in the same week being biggest climbers after having been faller of the week.

Andy Kim’s ‘Rock Me Gently’ was the faller of the week with a 3 place drop from 11 to 14 to give him his 3rd time with the award.

George McCrae’s ‘Rock Your Baby’ enjoyed a second week as the oldest in the charts. It was on 19 weeks with us.

Big John’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus’ ‘Rockin’ in the U.S.A.’ was the only song to leave the top 20 this week. It had enjoyed a run of 6 weeks and a peak of 11. This would be their only SA chart hit, however, Big John (real name John Goodison) would see further chart action, but would be listed as producer rather than artist.

In ‘Rockin’ In The U.S.A.’s place came Cat Steven’s 5th Top 20 hit, ‘Another Saturday Night’. Stevens was the 46th act to have 5 hits chart. In 1963 Sam Cooke took a version of ‘Another Saturday Night’ (which he had written himself) to the top of the R&B Singles charts in the US. Cat Stevens managed to get to 6th place on the main Hot 100 charts in the US and also took the song to the top in Canada, dislodging Andy Kim’s ‘Rock Me Gently’ for its first run at the top there (it fell from the number 1 spot and then regained it from First Class’ ‘Beach Baby’). In the UK it made number 10.

The Canadians celebrated having spent 200 weeks in the charts. They had 3 in the current chart and working on the principal that weeks were accumulated from the top spot down, then it was Andy Kim’s ‘Rock Me Gently’ that bagged the 200th week for them.

Neil Diamond became the 20th act to see their week count reach 80. Olivia Newton-John reach the 40 week land mark. She was the 10th female to manage this.

Abba was the only act who managed to feature on the first and last chart of the year. They had seen in 1974 with ‘Ring Ring’ in the top 20 and saw the year out with ‘Hasta Mañana’ sitting at 2. This was the first time we had only seen 1 act be on the first and last top 20’s of the year although there had been 2 years (1971 and 1972) when no acts managed this.

A final point to note was that for the 7th time, the Grammy song of the year did not chart in SA and that was ‘The Way We Were’ by Barbra Streisand.

‘Kung Fu Fighting’ by Carl Douglas became the 31st song to manage at least 5 weeks at the top of the charts as it saw off the challenge from The Three Degrees’ ‘When Will I See You Again’. The new pressure came from Abba’s ‘Hasta Mañana’ which climbed up 1 from 3 to 2.

Neil Diamond became the 10th of only 20 acts who would see 8 or more biggest climbers as ‘Longfellow Serenade’ picked up the award for him with a 10 place jump from 14 to 4. This was the 55th time a song had climbed 10 or more in a week. Donovan and Tom Jones were the only 2 acts who had managed this twice so far.

Three other songs were star raters and these were in descending order of climb size, Gigliola Cinquetti’s ‘To The Doors Of The Sun’ which climbed 8 to 9, Neil Herbert’s ‘She’s A Woman’ which moved up 6 to 7 and Olivia Newton-John’s ‘I Honestly Love You’ which jumped 5 to 5. Olivia became the 6th woman to clock up 6 star raters.

Both Margaret Singana’s ‘Mama Tembu’s Wedding’ and Eric Clapton’s ‘I Shot The Sheriff’ dropped 6 places making them the fallers of the week with the former landing at 12 and the latter at 15. Neither act had experienced this before.

The oldest song on last week’s chart, Paper Lace’s ‘The Night Chicago Died’, fell off the charts this week. It had lasted 18 weeks in the top 20 and peaked at 3. This would not be their only hit in SA. The new oldest on the charts was George McRae’s ‘Rock Your Baby’ which sat on 18 weeks.

Also going was Kris Kristofferson’s ‘Why Me’ which had spent 8 weeks at 1 (the tied 4th highest to date) and lasted a total of 16 weeks in the top 20.

The first of the new entries was Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet’ and it was the 23rd song by a Canadian act to enter the charts. With Andy Kim’s ‘Rock Me Gently’ and The Guess Who’s ‘Clap For The Wolfman’ also in the top 20 this week, we saw the highest concentration of Canadian acts in the charts for any week that we would ever see. There was also a connection between Bachman-Tuner Overdrive and the Guess Who as BTO members Randy Bachman (who wrote and produce the single) and Chad Allen were previous members of The Guess Who. ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet’ topped the US, Canadian, Danish, German, New Zealand and Zimbabwe charts as well as getting to number 2 in the UK, 3 in Austria, 4 in Ireland and Australia, 5 in Switzerland, 6 in Belgium and 7 in Norway.

John Lennon’s ‘Whatever Gets You Thru The Night’ was the 13th song by an ex-Beatle to chart in SA. So far Paul led the way with 5 hits (2 solo and 3 with Wings) and now John joined Ringo on 3 while George was falling behind on 2. It was the tied best year for the Fab Four’s solo careers as this was the 5th song of theirs to chart (6th if you include Ringo’s ‘Photograph’ which entered the charts in 1973, but was still there in 74). 1971 also saw 5 hits by them while 1972 only had 1 (2 if you count John’s ‘Imagine’ straddling 71 and 72) and 1973 only saw 2. ‘Whatever Gets Your Thru The Night’ featured Elton John on harmony vocals and piano. It knocked our other new entry this week, ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet’, off the top of the US charts to give John his only US number 1 during his lifetime and also meant that all 4 of the Beatles had now had solo number 1s on the Billboard Hot 100 with John being the final one to achieve this. John’s previous SA chart hit, ‘Mother’, left the charts 136 weeks previously making him the 3rd ex-Beatle to see a gap of 100 or more weeks between hits with Paul McCartney seeing a gap of 110 weeks and Ringo Starr managing a gap of 122.

Last week saw Abba reach the 500 points milestone and this week it was Olivia Newton-John’s turn to do so. Her total moved on to 506. She was the 10th female artist to reach this level of points.

‘Their moves were fast as lightning’. So sang Carl Douglas in ‘Kung Fu Fighting’, but the song itself was not moving. It spent a 4th straight week at the top of the charts. The Three Degrees’ ‘When Will I See You Again’ was still breathing down ‘Kung Fu Fighting’s neck as it spent a second week at 2.

Neil Diamond’s ‘Longfellow Serenade’ was thew climber of the week. It moved up 6 from 20 to 14. This was his 8th time with the climber of the week and he was the 10th act to reach 8 biggest climbers. Three other songs managed star rater climbs and these were ‘I Shot The Sheriff’ by Eric Clapton which moved up 4 from 13 to 9, Neil Herbert’s ‘She’s A Woman’ which climbed 5 from 18 to 13 and Olivia Newton-John’s ‘I Honestly Love You’ which moved up 4 from 14 to 10. It was Neil Diamond’s 13th time with a star rater and he joined 10 other acts that had managed this many. He was only the 4th American of the 11 acts to reach this total with the other 7 all being British.

Kris Kristofferson may well have asked ‘Why Me’ as his hit by that name took the faller of the week award. It dropped 6 places from 10 to 16. The next biggest fall was 4 places and I guess that should answer Kris’ question.

Paper Lace’s ‘The Night Chicago Died’ moved on to 18 weeks in the charts and was enjoying its 5th week as the oldest on the top 20.

There were 2 songs that left the chart this week, the first of which was The Hues Corporation’s ‘Rock The Boat’ which had been cruising round the charts for 13 weeks and managed to get to 5. This was their maiden voyage on our charts and, sadly for them, their only trip.

The other song to go was Billy ‘Crash’ Craddock’s ‘Rub It In’ which lasted 8 weeks and peaked at 8. This was the 34th song to have the same weeks figure as its peak. So far 7, 8 and 9 were the most popular for songs to have as their weeks and peak although it was the 7’s that led the way with 9 of them, we had seen 8 manage a weeks and peak of 9 and ‘Rub It In’ was the 7th to managed 8 as its weeks and peak. This would be Craddock’s only charting hit in SA.

The first new entry was The Guess Who’s 3rd top 20 hit and 22nd hit by a Canadian act, ‘Clap For The Wolfman’. We had not seen The Guess Who on our charts since 14 November 1969 and this gap of 265 weeks was the 8th biggest between hits that we had seen to date and the biggest for a Canadian act so far. The previous biggest gap for a Canadian act had been the 247 weeks Andy Kim Saw between ‘So Good Together’ and ‘Rock Me Gently’. The Wolfman referred to in the Guess Who song was an American DJ who called himself Wolfman Jack (real name Robert Smith – not the Robert Smith from The Cure). The Wolfman’s voice appeared on ‘Clap For The Wolfman’ and it made to 4 in the charts in their native Canada and 6 in the US.

After All’s ‘Help Me My Love’ gave us the 46th time a song re-entered the charts, having been absent for a week. Of the 46 occasions a song had re-entered the charts, 5 had managed to re-enter twice. So far no nation other than the big 3 (UK, US, SA) had managed to see more than 1 song re-enter the charts. In total 9 non-big 3 nations had seen 1 song manage this and they were Australia, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, New Zealand, Norway and now The Netherlands.

Andy Kim celebrated his 20th week in the charts. He was the 149th act to manage this and the 3rd Canadian with Lucille Starr and Stu Phillips being the other 2.

Abba became the 51st act to see their points total reach the 500 milestone as it ticked over to 504. This put them 50th overall for points as The Marmalade on exactly 500 was just below them.

For those really curious about these things, the letter ‘n’ was the most popular consonant in the song titles of the top 20 songs this week with it occurring 22 times. ‘H’ was the second most common, occurring 21 times. In terms of vowels, ‘e’ led with way with 38 followed by ‘o’ on 30 and then ‘a’ which shared 3rd place overall for all letters with ‘n’. I hope this bit of trivia has satisfied your curiosity.

Carl Douglas’ ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ enjoyed a 3rd week at the top of the charts but was under some pressure as The Three Degrees’ ‘When Will I See You Again’ made a star rater climb of 4 places from 6 to 2.

The climber award went to Olivia Newton-John’s ‘I Honestly Love You’ which moved up 5 places from 19 to 14. It was only her second time with the award, having picked up 1 with ‘If Not For You’. Her number 1 hit, ‘If You Love Me (Let Me Know)’ and her number 9 hit, ‘Banks Of The Ohio’ never managed to be a climber of the week.

The only other star rater this week was Barry White’s ‘Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love, Babe’ which moved up 4 from 16 to 12.

‘Rub It In’ by Billy ‘Crash’ Craddock was the faller of the week, dropping 4 from 12 to 16 in a swap of places with Barry White’s star rater mentioned above.

Paper Lace held on to the oldest song in the chart title as their hit ‘The Night Chicago Died’ moved on to 17 weeks with us.

After All’s ‘Help Me My Love’ became the 37th song to have a run of just 1 week at number 20 as it dropped out of the charts after being a new entry at the bottom place last week. Of those 37 there had been 26 for which this would be the song’s only outing in the charts.

We also bid farewell to Stephanie de Sykes’ Born with a Smile on My Face’. It had lasted 5 weeks on the charts and peaked at 15. This would be her only SA chart hit.

Last to go was another act who would only have 1 song chart in SA and that was Cozy Powell who’s ‘Na Na Na’ had lasted 4 weeks and peaked at 11.

On the new entry front we saw the last of just 4 people with the first name Neil to chart. We had had Neil Reid, Neil Young and Neil Diamond to date and now we could add Neil Herbert to that list as his ‘She’s A Woman’ arrived on the top 20 this week. The song was written and recorded by a Namibian (South West African back then) artist called Eddy (also spelt Eddie) Storbeck. Eddy’s version was arranged by Gerry Bosman and featured McCully Workshop’s Tully McCully as the engineer. Neil Herbert was born in Pretoria and had been with the group The Attraction before his launched a solo career. He died in a plane crash in 1979.

Gigliola Cinquetti supplied us with the 5th song by an Italian artist and the first by an Italian woman as ‘To The Door Of The Sun’ entered the charts at 19. Italy moved 1 ahead of Greece and Sweden for number of hits and sat 11th overall on the list of number of hits by acts from a nation. ‘To The Door Of The Sun’ was the English version of the Italian ‘Alle Porte Del Sole’, but it did not chart for her in Europe. Her biggest UK hit was ‘Go’ which made number 8 in the UK in 1974. She represented Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest on 2 occasions (neither time with ‘To The Door Of The Sun’).

Last of the new entries was by the most successful Neil to chart. Of the other 3 mentioned above, Diamond was the only one to have more than 1 hit in SA and ‘Longfellow Serenade’ was his 9th to chart. This placed him tied 13th on the list of number of hits by an artist. It had been 115 weeks since he was last in the top 20 and this was the 62nd time we had seen a gap of at least 100 weeks between hits by an act. ‘Longfellow Serenade’ made it to number 5 in the US but did not chart in the UK. In Europe it topped the Swiss charts, made 2 in Germany, 9 in Holland and Belgium and also made 29 in New Zealand.

The Americans took over lead for most weeks in the chart by a nation as their 3,419 moved them past the Brits’ 3,414. The local acts were 3rd with 2,109. In percentage terms, the US had managed 34.5% of the weeks available, the Brits 34.4% and the locals 21.3%.

Carl Douglas’ ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ spent a second week at the top of the charts while we had renewed interest in George McCrae’s ‘Rock Your Baby’ which bounced back up to number 2 from number 7 (a star rater climb of 5 places). The song had already spent 5 weeks at 3 in a run of 2 and then 3 weeks and dropped to 4 in between that run and had then dropped as low as 7 before climbing back to 2 this week.

The climber of the week award went to Big John’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus’ ‘Rockin’ in the U.S.A.’ which moved up 7 from 18 to 11. This along with ‘Rock You Baby’ were the only 2 star raters this week.

Cozy Powell’s ‘Na Na Na’ was the faller of the week with a 5 place drop from 12 to 17.

1965 (half year) and 1966 did not see a single song last just 1 week at 20 and with just 5 weeks to go till the end of the year, 1974 was looking like it might join them in this, but last week Dan Hill’s ‘Bubblegum’ was a new entry at 20 and this week it fell off the charts. This meant that 1974 joined 1968 and 1970 with having 1 song spend just 1 week at 20. Dan Hill’s SA chart career was now over with 2 hits to his name (the other being ‘Tchip Tchip’), a total weeks count of 12 and a best peak of 4 with his earlier hit had managed. Hill’s departure from the chart left the local act hit count at 1 (Margaret Singana’s ‘Mama Tembu’s Wedding’), the lowest it had been in 126 weeks.

There was still one more hit to come from Dan Hill, Confused, well the other Dan Hill hit would be by a Canadian chap who shared a name with our very own Dan Hill.

We also said goodbye to The Arrows’ ‘Touch Too Much’ which was one of 2 oldest songs on the chart last week. It had been with us for 15 weeks and peaked at 2. This would be their only SA chart hit although 12 years later a different group also called The Arrows (from Canada) had a number 1 hit on Radio 702 and a number 12 hit on Radio 5 with a song called ‘Talk Talk’.

The departure of ‘Touch Too Much’ from the top 20 left Paper Lace’s ‘The Night Chicago Died’ as the oldest on the charts. It was on 16 weeks.

Olivia Newton-John became the 8th female artist to have 2 hits in the charts simultaneously although 2 of those who had previously managed it did so with 1 hit being as part of a duet. For Newton-John, ‘I Honestly Love You’ joined a recent number 1, ‘If You Love Me (Let Me Know)’ on the top 20. ‘I Honestly Love You’ was written by Jeff Barry and Peter Allen. This was Barry’s first hit since the 1971 appearance on the top 20 of the Shangri La’s ‘Leader Of The Pack’ and was his 17th hit as songwriter. He was now in 3rd place for number of hits by a songwriter, pulling 1 ahead of Roger Greenaway and Geoff Stephens and being 1 behind second placed Les Reed and 7 behind leader Terry Dempsey. For Peter Allen, this was his first credit. He would also chart later on as artist. ‘I Honestly Love You’ topped the charts in Australia, Canada, Sweden and the US, knocking Andy Kim’s Rock Me Gently’ from the top spot of the US Billboard Hit 100. It made number 22 in the UK. Subsequent releases saw it make 55 in Canada and 48 in the US in 1977 and in 1983 it climbed to number 52 in the UK. A new recording of the song with Babyface on backing vocals gave the song another chart outing, making 67 in the US and 88 in Australia. This was Olivia’s 4th SA hit.

After All followed up their chart topping success of ‘If You Need Me’ with ‘Help Me My Love’. As with its predecessor, the song failed to chart in their native Holland. ‘Help Me My Love’ was written by Hank Hillman who had also penned The Shuffles’ 1970 number 2 hit, ‘Cha-La-La, I Need You’. This was the 10th song by a Dutch act to make the charts and this put them in 7th place for hits from acts from a nation, 1 ahead of Ireland and Jamaica.

Acts from the US had seen more weeks than those from the UK 16 weeks back, but the Brits had regained the lead and held it till this week when the 2 nations sat tied at the top of the list with 3,409 weeks each.

We had a new record 8 US chart toppers in the top 20 this week with ‘Kung Fu Fighting’, ‘Rock Your Baby’, ‘Rock Me Gently’, ‘The Night Chicago Died’, ‘Rock The Boat’, ‘I Shot The Sheriff’, ‘Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe’ and ‘I Honestly Love You’ all getting to number 1 Stateside. Of those 8, only our current number 1, ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ had not yet managed to get to number 1 in the US, but it would do so the week after this chart went out.

Carl Douglas’ ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ became the 14th song to top our charts that would also top the UK and US charts although at the time it made number 1 in SA it was still 2 weeks away from making it to the top of the US charts. 10 of the 14 songs to manage the triple were by American acts with 3 being by Brits and Terry Jacks’ ‘Seasons In The Sun’ being the solitary Canadian to manage this. ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ took over from Olivia Newton-John’s ‘If You Love Me (Let Me Know)’ on our charts after the latter had been at the top spot for 3 weeks.

‘The Way I Am’ by Lovelace Watkins was the climber of the week as it managed a 6 place jump from 19 to 13. The only other star rater this week was the new number 1 hit which moved up 4 from 5 to 1. This was the 15th time that a song had made a star rater jump to take the top spot where 7 of those 15 times the song was also the week’s biggest climber.

The faller award went to 3 songs which all fell 3 places. The first of these was The Arrows’ ‘Touch Too Much’ which dropped to 17. George McCrae’s ‘Rock You Baby’ and Kris Kristofferson’s ‘Why Me’ were the other 2 and they fell to 7 and 5 respectively.

Paper Lace’s ‘The Night Chicago Died’ and The Arrows’ ‘Touch Too Much’ enjoyed a second week as the oldest on the charts. They were on 15 weeks.

There were 2 songs that left the chart this week and the first of these was Dennis East’s ‘A Rose Has To Die’ which lasted 13 weeks in the charts and peaked at 6. There would be more to come from East.

Also going was The Walkers’ ‘Jack O’ Diamonds’ which managed 11 weeks and a peak of 7. Unlike Dennis East, The Walkers would not be seen on our charts again and this would be their only contribution to our top 20.

The first of the new entries was Barry White’s first SA hit as an artist, ‘Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love, Babe’ which entered at 19. His backing band, The Love Unlimited Orchestra had had a recent number 1 hit in SA with ‘Love Theme’ which White had penned. ‘Can’t Get Enough Of Your love, Babe’ topped the US charts, knocking this week’s number 16 song (‘I Shot The Sheriff’ by Eric Clapton) off the top spot there. Our number 4 song this week (Andy Kim’s ‘Rock Me Gently’) would dislodge White from the top spot in the US a week later. White also made it to number 8 in the UK. In 1993 Taylor Dayne took a version to number 20 in the US and 14 in the UK. White was the 18th person to have charted as a song writer before charting as an artist.

Dan Hill’s second hit, ‘Bubble Gum’ was the other new entry. It was written by Dennis East who had recently departed from the charts with his version of ‘A Rose Has To Die’. ‘Bubble Gum’ was the 39th instrumental song to chart and the 6th by a local act.

We were back up to the record to date 7 US chart toppers in the top 20. These 7 were Carl Douglas’ ‘Kung Fu Fighting’, Andy Kim’s ‘Rock Me Gently’, George McCrae’s ‘Rock Your Baby’, Paper Lace’s ‘The Night Chicago Died’, The Hues Corporation’s ‘Rock The Boat’, Eric Clapton’s ‘I Shot The Sheriff’ and Barry White’s ‘Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love, Baby’.

The male artists were back to having at least half the charts to themselves as they accounted for 10 of the top 20 hits. We also saw the first time in 25 weeks when a nation accounted for at least half of the chart as 10 of the top 20 songs were by US acts. The Americans had also been the nation involved the last time we saw at least 10 from a particular nation.